Been there, done that, had the same feeling but it had to be done. The difference is that mine was a 55 pound yearling that was carrying her right front leg. Best we could tell, she was hit by a vehicle and the knee joint had fused in a half bent position. Part of the bone buildup was sticking out of the skin. Some guys at camp said she needed to be taken out, others said no. If you feel you did the right thing...then you did and that is what counts.

You should feel proud at your accomplishment. I think a hunter that will put down an animal that is less than he/she was hoping for just to end it' s suffering has had a far larger accomplishment than one who brought in a healthy one and put it down.

Your ethics should be commended!

I believe you did the right thing. As I read your story, I think I would feel the same way you do...not because I took an animal that was already wounded, but because the " less than perfect" shot you hit him with didnt end his suffering immediately. Maybe you are a little down because you feel like you added to his suffering a little before you ended it? I agree thats a little hard to get over. I mis-hit a deer once in my hunting career (with my muzzy as a matter of fact) and I felt like crap over it for a week. I think the good news here is you DO feel a little bad about it. There are a lot of jokers out there who dont care at all. And some even get a kick out of making an animal suffer, so consider yourself a good, ethical hunter. The crappy feeling just reminds you to keep working toward perfection.
God bless and good luck in the future.
SC in LR

I had a similar situation this year also. The buck I took was lame on the left rear, hit by and was apparently surviving an arrow shot (arrow looked to skim between the ribs and skin, lot' s of green puss though), and he was gut shot. Put him down, about a 170 yard shot.



I am still proud of the hunt, because not only was it a good deer but it was the right, ethical thing to do.

Robbie

Flatland - nice buck. Nice shooting too at that range! Glad you could finish this guy off. Congratulations. It' s all part of hunting and it' s what we do. Take em how they come to us I suppose.

You did the right thing. Congratulations on your kill!!

Where did you end up hitting him that he was able to get up and run off again after doing two somersaults?

Don' t worry about taking a deer that was injured. Look at it as more of a challenge. Injured like that they are usually MORE wary and with your wife pushing him you are lucky he slowed down enough to get a shot at.

Chubber

Good shot!
If you wouldn' t have taken him, the coyotes or crows probably would have eventually. If it just had a leg shot up a bit, you aren' t going to lose much meat anyhow.

good job. next time take more bullets. i carry at least 5 extra shots with me while ML hunting. i'm not a bad shot but if the situation ever warrented i want to be able to shoot until he's down.

really nice buck.

Lesson well learned my friend. I almost loaded up a few before heading out, but I figured, why in the world would I ever need more than 2 shots anyway? Well, now I know why.